Radio show's top topping tackles hunger

Jeremy Mansfield turned his pizza topping into a scheme to feed hungry children.

He asked listeners to recommend their ultimate palate-pleasing pizza and debated the pros and cons of meats, cheeses, sauces and spices with the rest of the RAW team. Eventually he settled on a gourmet pizza with a number of subtly contrasting and complimentary flavours, including feta, chillies, baby vine tomatoes and fig.

Mansfield talked about his pizza so much, he eventually came up with a way for listeners to put their money where their mouth is, by donating the proceeds of the pizza to charity. Mimmos grabbed the opportunity to carry the Rude Awakening pizzas in its stores across Gauteng - and agreed to give all the proceeds to Food4Africa, a feeding scheme that supports hungry children. Through Food4Africa, each pizza is able to feed a child for a month.

This turned out to be an appeal that RAW listeners could not turn down - in the first day that the pizzas were on sale, 10 000 were sold.

"I was delighted with the flavour of the pizza we created, but I'm overwhelmed by the response of our amazing listeners," said Mansfield.

"Times are tough, but it seems as though this makes people all the more sympathetic to those who are worse off than them - thanks to everyone who has bought the pizza and fed a child."

The Global Pizza Challenge took place on Wednesday, 18 March 2009.

Find out more about Food4Africa at www.food4africa.org.